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The Sequoia Union High School District cites equity as a guiding principle, the North Star meant to orient decisions when the path forward is difficult. Yet as the district’s Board of Trustees considers closing TIDE Academy, the non-charter school serving the highest percentage of at-risk students in the district, the community is left to ask a necessary and uncomfortable question: Is equity truly guiding this ship, or has expediency taken the helm?
The district’s own words are unambiguous. In strategic planning documents, it declares:
“Equity — A diverse community must ensure equity in access and opportunity. The district is committed to implementing academic and extracurricular program structures and policies that serve the best interests of all students.”
The district’s Local Control and Accountability Plan states:
“Equity requires strategic and sustainable action to meet the needs of every student … through the design and implementation of structures, systems, and policies.”
These are not aspirational slogans. They are commitments, and that means sticking to them when decisions are hard.
The board is indeed facing difficult decisions in the form of budgetary challenges. A $5.2 million salary increase for teachers, negotiated in response to rising living expenses, has contributed to a structural deficit the district must now address. Few would argue that educators do not deserve compensation that reflects the cost of living in this region. But responsible leadership requires grappling honestly with the consequences of that decision.
What is troubling is not that the district must make difficult choices; it is which choice is on the table first.
TIDE Academy serves a population that is 83% students of color, 80% Hispanic/Latinx students, 60% socioeconomically disadvantaged students, and 36% students with individualized education plans (IEPs) or 504 plans — the highest concentration of at-risk students among the district’s non-charter campuses. If equity is truly the district’s guiding principle, why is the school serving students with the greatest needs (and doing so with a 100% graduation rate) the one being considered for closure?
Some may argue that TIDE Academy’s per-pupil cost, approximately $39,000 compared to an average of $26,000 at other district schools, makes its closure an equity issue in reverse, suggesting those resources could be more “fairly” redistributed across the district. This argument fundamentally misunderstands equity. Equity is not the same as equality. Equity means giving students what they need to succeed after taking their differences and historical disadvantages into account. Unequal needs require unequal spending. Students who are socioeconomically disadvantaged, students with disabilities and students facing systemic barriers cost more to educate well, and they should. Higher per-pupil spending at TIDE is not evidence of inefficiency. It is evidence of an intentional attempt to serve students who require smaller class sizes, specialized services, counseling and alternative learning models. Redistributing resources may balance spreadsheets, but it abandons the very students equity is meant to protect.
Compounding the concern is the fact that TIDE’s campus is barely 6 years old. Built with $50 million in voter-approved Measure A bond funds, it opened in 2019. At a recent staff and faculty listening session, the superintendent stated that if TIDE closes, the district plans to lease the building.
That may be a savvy move for a CEO or CFO who will be rewarded for expediency. But public education operates under a different mandate — schools are not businesses, and students are not line items. Leasing a $50-million campus while displacing some of the district’s most vulnerable students sends a stark message about whose needs are prioritized when budgets tighten.
Equity is not tested when decisions are easy. It is tested precisely in moments like this.
The board will vote Feb. 4 on whether to close TIDE. To date, the district has not given the community a number for how much closing TIDE will save or presented meaningful alternatives to closure, a silence that stands in sharp contrast to its stated promise of “strategic and sustainable action” in pursuit of equity.
The board must remember the course it set for itself. Equity cannot be a talking point invoked in good times and abandoned in hard ones. It must be the compass that guides every major decision, especially those that affect students who already face the steepest barriers.
I urge community members to write to the trustees at board@seq.org and attend the Feb. 4 board meeting to speak out. Tell our trustees that we expect them to maintain the commitment to equity and let it guide the Sequoia Union High School District forward.
Marijane Leonard
Menlo Park resident and TIDE Academy parent
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